Monday, December 31, 2012

It's All Right

My hometown newspaper lost its bearings this year. It got so mad at Noda Yoshihiko and the Democratic Party of Japan over the consumption tax bill that it forgot, when election time came around, to remind itself and its readers that for those who love Japan as it is, a trip to the election site for a vote for the DPJ and its candidates was the only way to avoid a reactionary regime change.

However, I love my dead tree news provider for all the good news it brings me...and for its publication of the work of Sato Masaaki, this blessed land's one truly clever political cartoonist.

Sato has a huge, full-color end-of-the year panel on the front page of this, the last newspaper for the year. In honor of omisoka it is a take on the Kohaku Uta Gassen (紅白歌合戦 - "Red-White Song Battle") to be broadcast tonight on NHK from 19:15 to 23:45. (Link)

Sato's Kohaku Uta Gassen is of a different character.

Two characters actually. Instead of "Red-White" (kohaku), Sato's version is "'This Is The Way To Cough It Up' (こう吐く - ko haku) Song Battle."

The star attraction, leading off, none other than newly reminted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, singing his theme song of rebirth:

Yes, it's "Here Comes the Sun" -- the first song, side two of the Beatles' famous last recorded album...Abe Road.